Edgbaston 2005: Two Runs That Lit Up an Ashes Summer

Brett Lee stood at the non-striker's end with his hands on his knees, and Andrew Flintoff crouched beside him. Moments earlier, Steve Harmison had bowled a short ball to Michael Kasprowicz, who had fended it away, and the wicketkeeper Geraint Jones had dived forward to hold the catch. England had won, but Flintoff's first move was to console the beaten opponent. It is the image that defines the greatest of modern Ashes Tests.

A series Australia expected to control

England had not won the Ashes since 1986-87. Australia, led by Ricky Ponting, had held the urn for years and arrived with a pace attack of Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, plus the great leg-spinner Shane Warne. They won the opening Test at Lord's by a big margin, and McGrath's ankle injury, suffered when he stood on a stray ball in the warm-up at Edgbaston, looked like the only dent in their armour.

Ponting won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that has been debated ever since. Without McGrath, his attack lacked its usual control, and England, captained by Michael Vaughan, seized the moment.

England's astonishing first day

England raced to 407 on the first day, scoring at a rate rarely seen in Test cricket. Marcus Trescothick hit 90, Flintoff played with typical power, and the crowd watched in disbelief as a team that supposedly lacked the nerve for the contest took the attack to the best side in the world.

Australia replied with 308, a deficit of 99. England's second innings was a scrappier affair, ending on 182, thanks in large part to Flintoff's 73 and some uncompromising hitting. Warne took 6 for 46 and left Australia with a target of 282.

The chase takes shape

Australia began the chase with a long batting order and plenty of experience, and there seemed little reason to doubt they would make 282 on a good surface. Then Flintoff began to bowl at pace and with relentless accuracy, and the innings started to unravel. Wickets fell steadily, and England sensed a win that had looked a long way off.

Warne helped to end his own innings, treading on his stumps for hit wicket after making 42. The man who had spent a career tormenting English batsmen briefly looked up at the sky, bat in hand, as the game seemed to slip towards England.

With nine wickets down, England appeared to be winning easily. Australia still needed 62 runs, and nobody expected the last pair to trouble anyone for long.

Lee, Kasprowicz and an unbearable evening

Then came the stand that made the match immortal. Lee, a fast bowler with a batsman's instincts, and Kasprowicz, a tail-ender with a straight bat, began to take singles and punish bad balls. The runs came slowly, then quickly. At every boundary the crowd groaned, and at every dot ball it roared.

Vaughan moved his fielders back and forward as the target shrank, and it was Harmison, who had struggled for rhythm earlier in the match, who came back to bowl at the death. The last pair added 59, leaving Australia just three runs from victory, and then two.

Harmison's short ball to Kasprowicz was the last delivery that mattered. The ball brushed the batsman's glove on its way down the leg side and Jones held it. Australia, who needed two runs, were all out for 279.

A summer that changed the mood

Edgbaston levelled the series at 1-1, and the following Test at Old Trafford ended in a tense draw with Ponting batting for much of the final day. England then took the series 2-1 at The Oval, ending Australia's long dominance and sparking celebrations that included a parade through central London.

What the Test had done, besides providing a result, was to remind the public that Test cricket could be as gripping as any sport. Viewing figures for the series were high, and a generation of young fans discovered the longer game through those five weeks.

The legacy of two runs

The margin of two runs remains the narrowest by which any Ashes Test has been won in terms of runs. It is hard to imagine a tighter finish. Yet what lingers is not just the closeness but the character shown by both sides, and in particular the handshake that went to the beaten bowler first.

Few sporting moments combine ferocious competition with such generosity. Edgbaston 2005 is the match people cite when they argue that Test cricket is still the best form of the game, and the two runs that decided it have become the most famous two runs in English cricket.

The cricket that changed attitudes

England's approach in 2005 was a break with the past. Rather than waiting for Australia to make mistakes, they attacked with the bat and with aggressive fields, and their pace bowlers hunted wickets with reverse swing and sustained hostility. The method came to be associated with a feeling of freedom, and many of the players looked as if they were enjoying themselves for the first time in an Ashes series.

Australia, for their part, showed why they were great. They never conceded, even when the position looked hopeless, and their last-wicket pair nearly achieved something that most sides would have called impossible. The mutual respect on display, from the handshake to the applause, made the Test a model of how a hard-fought contest should be played.